Many of the comments I’ve been reading about Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback program since the official launch yesterday have been negative. I’m not exactly ecstatic about the service, but can a service that is trying to help you save money be that bad?

Unfortunately, too many of these opinions seem to be coming from people who didn’t fully try out the service. Instead they seemed to have glanced the service over, whipped a post up as fast as they could and competed to write the best ‘let’s trash Microsoft’ posts they could so they could race to the top anchor spot on Techmeme.  If you go off hyperbolic headlines Microsoft is being accused of: bribery, stealing ideas and more. I don’t want to read armchair quarterback opinions about what this means for the future of Microsoft gaining search share from Google, I’d like to know if the Cashback service is worth using.

Fact: considering the Cashback program’s own FAQ states that it can take several days for a purchase to even show as "pending" there can’t be many true Cashback customer experience posts out there to draw from yet. Pure logistics.

Some commented on the shopping experience like Danny who points out that the Cashback team sort of went halfway by not providing important comparison shopping features like reviews. He also labeled the system "complicated." I think the word Danny meant to use based on his post was convoluted, not complicated.

Using Cashback is pretty non-complicated, just search for what you want, go to the store with the price you like — if you are logged into Cashback (and you only have to login once) then you’ll see a message that your shopping at the merchant’s site is being tracked for Cashback. Then it’s very much like any other shopping experience online. Danny’s fellow writer, Barry, has walkthru screenshots. Complex? Hardly.

Yesterday, I went through and searched for something I wanted to buy — and was available from a merchant using Cashback — and ordered. Other than having to fill out the necessary ordering details at the merchant’s site, the process was straightforward. Like any other online order. People like us who do a lot of shopping online are used to the process. The only caveat is that we go through the Live Cashback search first. Big deal? Not really.

Where is your favorite online store?
Now here’s a bigger deal when it comes to online shopping: what if your favorite online store isn’t part of the Cashback network (yet)? My wife complained that Cashback didn’t have her favorite online store: Bed, Bath & Beyond, so she wouldn’t be using it that much. They offer an A-Z list (search.live.com/cashback/stores) of what online stores they are partnering with and while it’s a decent list, it’s not all inclusive, meaning you won’t be getting any cash back from those stores unless they offer their own deals. Hell might freeze over before Amazon surfaces on the list.

This is a major flaw. How can any useful shopping search be valid if it only includes search results for stores that are being partnered with? Wouldn’t it be more useful to show all shopping search results and simply display 0% cashback (since the site isn’t a Cashback shop partner)? Allow shoppers to toggle on/off non-Cashback partners. Now that would be useful and empower the people. I like it. Do it, Cashback team, please.

Since Microsoft isn’t making any money from the deal, I don’t understand why this isn’t an option at launch. Fine, toggle it off by default, so you highlight your own partner list, but who do we want to help most here? The people in your network or the shoppers?

Cashback order price accuracy
Loren suggests offering free shipping, not cash back, a la Amazon Prime (emphasis mine):

For instance, I wouldn’t do a Detroit-style cash back program, instead I’d join up with UPS and FedEx and provide free shipping for everyone, or free shipping upgrades, if the company already provides free shipping. This is a lot easier to communicate I think than a nebulous price-oriented cash back program.

Loren, what is nebulous about the cash you get back? You see exactly what your rebate is before clicking through to the store’s website? However, I agree that the shipping and handling can add up, check out my order of Gibson guitar polish below, which is half the price of the item ordered (ouch):

There are a couple other problems here. Compare this order email receipt to what Live Cashback showed me:

Notice that Cashback doesn’t show any tax being charged. You’d think since Cashback knows where I’m located from my Live profile, they would be showing tax being charged. Second, and I’m not sure who to blame this one on. The guitar polish showed as ‘available to ship’ on the merchant’s site but when they emailed me a receipt see what word is hyperlinked: backordered. Huh? That’s a quick way to annoy your customer: by showing them on the website that something is available and yet sending them a receipt that shows the opposite.

Good news: this morning I received another email that the guitar polish had been shipped. I logged into Cashback to see if my $0.80 showed as ‘pending’ yet? Nope. Again, the FAQ says it can take several days and not to contact them until 7 days has passed. I will add another post or update this one below or in the comments if/when I’m credited with $0.80.

You like saving money, don’t you?
For me the bottom line is will I remember to use this? When I’m shopping online, I tend to have specific stores in mind. Stores that I trust and like doing business with while a number of the Cashback stores I’ve never heard about erodes my confidence. I don’t frequent the deal sites as much as I should, so having Cashback show me different stores comparatively helps, but as mentioned above I’d like to see the option to aggregate all the online shopping sites and let me decide if I care about the rebate.

One of the reasons that I use Google more than other searches is because it feels like it is giving me the most relevant search results. When I shop for something, I know what I want and don’t just want to buy it at the cheapest price, I want to buy it from a store that won’t give me service nightmares. Live Cashback is a start, but feels incomplete.

Finally, the title of this post mirrors my biggest concern with rebates: you have to wait for them. I understand that they can’t credit a sale right away because of returns, but I’ve become very leery of rebates. I won’t label them a ’scam’ but they feel like they are because of the length of time it takes to get the money back to you. If a store is going to discount me, then they should do so at the time of sale, not later. Mike at TechCrunch ran a few sales through and his rebate showed right away, so maybe I chose a slower site to report back to Cashback that I made a sale?

This negative connotation may not help Live Cashback gain enough traction. A system which minimizes the error correction and time customers wait for these rebates would help. If I were on the Cashback team, I’d be pushing to make this service as useful as possible for shoppers. It doesn’t feel there quite yet. What do you think?

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